Line #20 Film/Tanna


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3	''Tanna'' is a 2015 film from UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, directed by Martin Butler and Bentley Dean.
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5	Wawa is a young woman of the Yakel tribe, living on the island of Tanna in UsefulNotes/{{Vanuatu}}. She is blossoming into adulthood, and thus is being prepared for marriage. According to local custom, or rather "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kastom kastom]]", Charlie the village chief will match her up with a suitable husband. When the enemy Imedin tribe attacks Wawa's grandfather, fighting breaks out. Eventually the chief pledges Wawa to an Imedin warrior in order to make peace.
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7	However, Wawa is in love with handsome Dain, grandson of their tribe's chief. They have been engaging in clandestine meetings in the jungle, with Selin occasionally spying on them. The lovers resolve to stay together, no matter what, even as their tribal elders demand that Wawa submit to them and enter into her arranged marriage, in accordance with village custom.
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9	Shot on location on the island of Tanna, with a cast exclusively made up of people who live in the area, playing roles similar to what they really are in RealLife (a chief plays a chief, a shaman plays a shaman, etc). All the dialogue is in the local language of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Tanna_language Nivhaal]], which allowed ''Tanna'' to be the first Australian production to get an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
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11	Compare ''Film/{{Tabu}}'', a silent film from 1931, set in Polynesia rather than Melanesia, but with a similar theme of forbidden romance and flight.
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14	!!Tropes:
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16	* ArrangedMarriage: How young people of the Yakel are supposed to get married. Wawa is not on board.
17	* BasedOnATrueStory: The opening title claims that the film is based on a true incident that occurred in 1987.
18	* BittersweetEnding: Wawa and Dain kill themselves. But the tragedy leads the tribe to adopt marriage for love as a custom, and the mood for the future is hopeful.
19	* ChekhovsGun:
20	** The Christian church on the island, which Selin's grandfather shows her as part of a talk about corrupting foreign influences. Dain and Wawa flee to there after the tribe demands that she enter into an ArrangedMarriage. After the Christians's fervent piety gives them the creeps, Dain and Wawa leave.
21	** The poisonous mushrooms which grow on trees, first pointed out to Selin by her grandfather as a warning. Dain picks some after he's thrown out of the tribe. Eventually he and Wawa eat them.
22	* CycleOfRevenge: DiscussedTrope, as the elders of the tribe are desperate to end the violence with the Imedin.
23	--> '''Charlie''': We can't allow the cycle of killing to begin again.
24	* DancePartyEnding: A rather unconventional one, as the members of the tribe dance and sing after the tragedy leads them to decide to allow "love marriage".
25	* DrivenToSuicide: Wawa and Dain kill themselves by eating poison mushrooms, rather than being split apart.
26	* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: Maybe not as big a deal when everyone is mostly naked anyway, but a boy of the tribe is greatly annoyed when Selin steals his penis sheath.
27	* IronicJuxtaposition: As Wawa and Dain eat wild honey from a honeycomb, they pronouce that "life is sweet". The film then cuts to a closeup of the bees on the honeycomb, accompanied by angry buzzing. The next closeup shows the men of the tribe racing through the jungle, on the hunt for Wawa and Dain.
28	* KarmaHoudini: The Imedin tribesmen who assault Wawa's grandfather and start the whole tragic cycle never suffer for it.
29	* NationalGeographicNudity: Lots and lots. The men wear only "penis sheaths" and the women wear only grass skirts. (Wawa and some of the other younger women sometimes wear a sort of grass vest as well.)
30	* OneWomanWail: Heard on the soundtrack at various emotional moments, like when Dain takes off for the volcano after he's thrown out of the tribe, or when Wawa meets him there after fleeing.
31	* ThePlace: The island of Tanna in Vanuatu.
32	* SceneryPorn: ''Good God''. A visit to "Yahul", aka [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Yasur Mount Yasur]], an active volcano, stands out.
33	* StarCrossedLovers: Wawa and Dain wind up killing themselves after finally realizing there's no way for them to be together.

Context Film / Tanna